Hotel California
DIE! DIE! DIE!
"Le Freak" is awesome, though.
Live and let die
I actually prefer the cover of this one.
My list would include "It's Your Thing".
1: No, dude, Hotel California is awesome. I used to hate it too, but you should come join me on the dark side.
Things I find awesome:
(a) incredibly dork-ass bass line
(b) evocations of that drug-infused paranoid mellow nightmare that I imagine 70s California to be
(c) you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
I like the "dark side of the dream" laments. See also "Hollywood nights" and "Life in the fast lane."
I'm with you on "Hotel California" until you say "It's a metaphor" -- the lyric is utterly cornball. But it's still a fun song. Also: this category for me includes most of The Eagles' catalog.
Also "Breakfast in America"? Maybe -- I don't know if I like it exactly -- but I would be glad to hear it come on the radio sometime.
Labs, "Hotel California" is maybe a B+ song, on your curve.
Joe, does anyone hate "It's your thing"? I thought it was universally loved.
I'm pretty sure every song I like falls into this category. Including "Gettin Jiggy With It." Rhyming "George and Weezy" with "nice and easy" makes me laugh.
Also: who hates "You're So Vain"? I thought it was pretty popular, and deservedly so.
(But Joe D's take-off on "You're So Vain" in the clown-fucking thread: awesome.)
Here's another one: "Southern Cross". -- And much of the rest of the post-Young CSN catalog.
9: more power to the people, then. I was just talking with someone who expressed loathing for it.
"the wife of a close friend"? Genius.
Hotel California isn't a song, Matt, it's a relic of a long-dead culture.
Come to think of it, how did this miss the cut?
I haven't heard "I've Never Been to Me" since the early 80s, but I'd probably enjoy hearing it again. I have a weakness for songs with super-serious spoken interludes (see also: "Leader of the Pack").
a relic of a long-dead culture
Like the influenza epidemic in Doomsday Book.
Joe, does anyone hate "It's your thing"? I thought it was universally loved.
I figured it was massively overplayed. But the groove is so good. How does one find a groove like that? I'd love to know. Possibly through Jesus.
How does one find a groove like that?
Well, first of all, one never knows, do one. Second of all, if you have to ask....
Also: who hates "You're So Vain"?
I hate it to the point that I could be inspired to violence by it. Even thinking about it gets me mad.
Chopper, you've enraged me on two different threads simultaneously. We're going into the steel cage, and only one of us is coming out.
who hates "You're So Vain"?
I do.
You just want to get me alone in a room, Labs.
I like hearing "I Was Made for Lovin' You", though even diehard KISS fans hate it. And I pretty much like hearing KISS right down the line, you haters.
"I've Never Been to Me?" Something is wrong with you.
If you're going to have Night Fever, what about September (Earth Wind and Fire)?
"I've Never Been to Me?"
Oh, wait, you're not talking about the Hoyt Axton song. Something is wrong with you.
So, what's the impact of using songs in commercials? Does it vary as much as I think it does? is the damage minimal?
I'm thinking of Etta James' At last! My love has come along behind the catfood commercial.
I'm talking about Charlene, baby. So, so awesome.
IDP -- depends on the song and the commercial. There have been many times when a commercial featured a song I liked, that I thought "Oh shit -- now that song is going to be ruined." But I'm not sure whether it has ever actually taken place that the song was in fact ruined long-term.
I agree with 32. There's a momentary sense of violation, but on the whole, nothing special, in most cases.
Rocking me baby behind lame jeans ad merely reinforces pre-existing millerhate, for instance.
'I've never been to me' raises the question of what FL's position is on 'The Pina Colada Song'.
(OT, remember I posted about having a blogcrush on the new right-wing guy at ObWi? Someone just explained to him that I'm female, which hadn't previously occurred to him. That shouldn't be as funny as I find it, I'm sure.)
What's the funny story about Styx and "Lady"? After they broke up, one member always made fun of the other for writing it or something? I read it on some blog.
I've been a little unclear all morning, what to make of "even though many people hate them" in the title of this post. (Taken literally you could probably say this about any song.) Are the "many people" the intelligentsia (so we are talking about "guilty pleasures", popular songs we dig even though the elite turn up their noses)? The masses (so we are talking about songs which bombed commercially but ought to have been hits)? Sometimes one and sometimes the other? Some third possibility?
Including 'I've never been to me' seems to imply that that 'many people' includes 'everyone sane'. That is, that these are songs that are rightly hated, but FL likes them anyway.
On commercials: The California Raisins destroyed "I Heard it Through the Grapevine."
38: can you feel the world-incinerating hate? My cubicle is starting to glow with it.
The The Big Chill soundtrack destroyed that song. The California Raisins just dug up the corpse and sodomized it.
Also I hated it before I knew the lyrics, so clearly everything about that song is wrong.
Also, is "Come Sail Away" the one that starts "73 men..."? No, I see that's Ride, Captain Ride", so it's barely possible that you are not possessed by Satan.
We are your overlords, bitches. (NSFW: music.)
I second "Live and let die." Don't listen to the lyrics, just the cheesy chord changes.
Aww, LB, you're just a discontented mother and a regimented wife.
Remember when you had that blogcrush on the ObWi guy, and then he posted about universal health care and how it would make medicine so much more expensive, using intro-level economic reasoning and ignoring the fact that there are lots of empirical data from countries that actually make this idea work?
Joel Veitch is awesome. Have you seen "Gay Bar"?
I have now! Woo! Viking kittens make everything better. I should put one in this chapter. (Consider the Viking kitten. If you remove the right horn from its helmet at time t1, does it remain the same kitten?)
I hate you people. "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" is a fucking awesome, awesome song.
Hey, I've seen some things that a woman ain't s'posed to see. Like people ignoring empirical data in favor of 'Econ 101' theories. You can't let that get in the way of blogcrushes on rightwingers, there wouldn't be any left.
And he thought I was a man when I put up that post, which completely delights me.
Wait, I thought 42 was to 41. Nevermind. I guess I just hate apostropher then.
I can remember my dad laughing at "But in this ever-changing world in which we live in..."
We talked about that song a few months ago, when I suggested Live and Let Die would make the best "Period Bond"
"I Heard it Through the Grapevine" was an awesome song before I was bludgeoned with it every goddamn party ever while I was in college.
I can remember my dad laughing at "But in this ever-changing world in which we live in..."
In fairness to Macca, which I don't usually indulge, isn't this lyric, "world in which we're livin'"?
The song is still no good, but.
Agree with Silvana that "Heard it through the grapevine" is well nigh indistructable; it's my turn to say "grow a spine, people!"
Am I imagining things, or has Abbie Lincoln's version of What a Difference a Day Makes never been used in a commercial?
Which is to say, silvana, thank your lucky stars that you didn't go to college in the mid-80s.
This site:
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/paul+mccartney/live+let+die_20105856.html
thinks my dad was right.
Online lyrics sites are way unreliable.
Oh, ok, I don't hate you then. But it seems pretty indestructible to me.
You know what song is really good, but seems destructible? "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone".
I was younger than Newt is now, in the mid-80s.
way unreliable
However, you'll see the same spelling/wording errors propagated across dozens of sites, which I guess is a certain flavor of reliability. Just not a good one.
58: OK, what album was that on? Red Rose Speedway? I'm proud to say I don't have it.
Point is, some people heard it the way we did; Canadian ears haven't played tricks this time.
45: That's the song the Vikings should use for their fucking intro. I've been advocating it for years!
"I come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow..."
59: See, being on TBC soundtrack was bad enough, but it was the opening track on the album to boot. So, not only was the it the one song you were guaranteed to hear, it was also the one that would make all the drunken girls holler "whoooooooooo!!!!" and jump up to do the whitey dance. Followed by the requisite, "You know, this really was the best music evar made! Whooooooo!!!!"
You could count on this happening at least twice in an evening.
Speaking of "Ain't no sunshine..." does anybody remember A White Bear's appreciation of Bill Withers a few months ago? I almost booked a flight to NYC with bigamist intent.
Come Sail Away is on (what used to be) my running mix. The ramp-up in tempo would inevitably lead to a faster pace, which would then be sustained throughout the rest of the run. It is also one of the few songs I will unabashedly sing along with (among the others are "You Can Call Me Al", "Mrs. Robinson", "Werewolves of London", and "Don't Think Twice, it's Alright", plus a few more depending on how intoxicated I am.)
a certain flavor of reliability
This is the difference between accuracy and precision, right? I.e., the propagation of internet information is highly precise, but not necessarily accurate.
you'll see the same spelling/wording errors propagated across dozens of sites, which I guess is a certain flavor of reliability
A good example of reliability without accuracy.
65: wish I'd known that when I saw you Saturday: I'd have called for a duet.
A good way of getting over the demise of "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" is by listening to "That's the Way Love Is" by Marvin Gaye. It's almost the same song, but hasn't been played to death.
"Sweet Jane" never gets old.
Speaking of commercials ruining great songs, "Lust For Life".
"Sweet Jane" never gets old.
I think that about "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" but I am given to understand a lot of people disagree with me.
"Sweet Jane" never gets old
I quite like the Cowboy Junkies' version, too.
"Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll" are the best one-two punch in the history of rock albums.
2 that i like that may fit here: "Third Rate Romance" and "Poke Salad Annie". It helps (a lot) to have seen the various bands do the songs live, tho' I liked 'em before seeing the bands.
"Suspicious Minds," too, which is redeemed by the James Burton guitar part.
53 and 63 get it exactly right. That song is now beyond redemption.
I'll write a long, impassioned, and mostly serious defense of the disco era.
Is that necessary? Surely there's only a few old punks on islands and such like who still hate disco. And what kind of space alien hates "In the Ghetto"?
However, I could live happily never hearing "Hotel California" again.
"Another thing that interests me about the Eagles is that I hate them. "Hate" is the kind of up-tight word that automatically excludes one from polite posthippie circles, a good reason to use it, but it is also meant to convey an anguish that is very intense, yet difficult to pinpoint. Do I hate music that has been giving me pleasure all weekend, made by four human beings I've never met? Yeah, I think so. Listening to the Eagles has left me feeling alienated from things I used to love. As the culmination of rock's country strain, the group is also the culmination of the counterculture reaction that strain epitomizes."--Robert Christgau.
a few old punks on islands and such like who still hate disco
I wouldn't say "hate", but I honestly can't think of a disco song I like, either. I never had a t-shirt that said "Disco Sucks" but I had friends who did.
I'm not really sure what disco is besides "The Bee-Gees" which I like okay.
See, all that stuff has little melodic merit and just makes people do the white-person dance really, really badly.
Don't neglect other James Bond intro songs that might be hated but are in fact awesome. Like the theme song for Goldfinger.
I was not even a twinkle in my father's eye when disco was king, but I'm sick now of the new disco rock revival.
Pretty much all the James Bond songs *except* Live and Let Die are awesome.
Look at the songs in the Disco Box Set. The Jahsonic entry on disco is pretty good, too.
Smasher--
I'm so unaware these days. What bands are part of the disco rock revival?
Bill Withers - Live at Carnegie Hall is the best live album ever.
"Rock and Roll" is a great song.
Is "Come Sail Away" the song which, if you sing the first line, forces Cartman to sing the entire song? That was funny.
The first version of "Live and Let Die" I ever heard was the Guns 'N' Roses version, by comparison with which McCartney's version is LAME.
86: Some big names would be The Rapture, !!!, Q and Not U. There's a lot from DC: the afore-mentioned Q&!U, Sentai, Supersystem, some more I'm forgetting.
"Don't Fear The Reaper" is probably way overplayed by the same gloomy sophomores who made me hate "Another Brick In The Wall," but I do love DFtR in a way that is probably unhealthy.
Gods, but "Live And Let Die" is a fabulous song. Anyone who'd listen to, say, "Thunderball" over "Live And Let Die" simply hates America, though frankly "From Russia With Love" is my favorite Bond title track.
Last night I posted the lyrics to Midnight at the Oasis on the other thread. As expiation, today I post the lyrics to Laughing. It's David Crosby, and the backup bit by Joni Mitchell is exactly perfect.
I though I met a man who said he knew a man
Who knew what was going on
I was mistaken, only another stranger that I knew
And I thought that I'd found the light
To guide me through my nights and all my darkness
I was mistaken, it was only reflections of a shadow that I saw
And I thought I've seen someone who seemed at last
To know the truth
I was mistaken, only a child laughing in the sun
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh in the sun
Do you know what really is an unfairly maligned entertaining B+ summer song? The Macarena.
92: Thanks, that is very pleasant. I will seek out an opportunity to listen to it.
Weiner will next sing the praises of "Don't Worry, Be Happy".
Is not "Don't Worry, Be Happy" a novelty song? Can it also be a pop song?
"Overplay," the root experience for this subject, is something easily avoided by avoiding radio. But I've noticed seventies songs long forgotten are being piped into the grocery stores I shop in. I can handle almost anything in small doses. "The sailors say Brandi! you're a fine girl..."
If you don't admit that the middle-aged guys in suits pwn, the terrorists win.
Can't figure out how both of them have what look like four-in-hand knots that don't skew to either side, but drop symetrically. A new knot I don't know?
I'm trolling, but I'm also right.
101: I am almost prepared to watch that video for the third time in the last half hour to help answer your question, but not quite. Anyway, I don't know enough about ties to tell.
Okay, that video is good campy fun, but that doesn't mean that the song itself isn't annoying as hell.
101: It's probably just a half-windsor knot or something similar. That produces a relatively small but symmetrical knot, especially with silk ties.
Unfortunately, I can't really think of any songs that I like which most people hate, unless I start naming off the more out-there indie music. And Gaijin Biker, everyone loves "Funkytown". Everyone.
77: Disco song I admit to liking (not counting anything by Deee-Lite, which is neo-disco if disco at all): Cherchez La Femme, by Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. The song is as obscure as the admission is embarrassing, so I figure I redeem myself somewhat.
I'm pretty sure I shouldn't post to this thread. I don't think I like good music, except for classical. My first response is, 'What the hell is wrong with Brandy, hater?'
I was not paying much attention to pop when the Macarena was out but I was sort of aware of it. It's pretty fun. The video (comment 100) is nice--- there is a moment where a young woman comes on and laughs at 1:07 which is sheer delight. That I love. I am also mad about Le Freak. It is quite a simple song but the guitar playing is so tight and it's sassy in a classy way.
106 Cherchez la femme is wacky. You probably like Deputy of Love too!
Hey, Dr. Buzzard's is awesome. And Kid Creole and the Coconuts, which was basically an offshoot, is double-super-awesome.
109: I am pleased to report that the title rings no bells with me.
110: Yeah, there's that lineage. I didn't know it at the time, or I'd have sought out Kid Creole right away. But what the hell, I was about 12 or 13.
good wacky, I meant.... Kid Creole's "I'm wonderful thing baby" (I think that is the title) is such excellent fun!
90: Which is why The Beautiful South's cha-cha version of DFtR is almost unspeakably awesome.
As the culmination of rock's country strain, the group is also the culmination of the counterculture reaction that strain epitomizes."
I don't know what "counterculture reaction" is supposed to mean here (reaction to the counterculture? the counterculture's reaction to something unmentioned?) but it seems pretty clearly negatively portrayed here, which is bollocks. For one thing, rock doesn't have "a country strain", as something separable with which it occasionally flirts. Rock and country go way back. This should be obvious. Second, the Eagles in no wise culminate said "strain". I don't like Christgau.
Re Supersystem: IIRC they used to be a band called El Guapo which had a live album divided into two continuous parts. Part of the first part, which featured dissonant nonmelodies played on standard rock instrumentation supplemented by oboe and english horn, involved a short lecture about the playstation. It was neat!
Christgau earlier calls the Eagles "a culmination of the vaguely country-oriented mainstream of American rock," so you haven't contradicted his point. The Eagles are the culmination, he says, because they're not too country nor non-rock; as purist as purist gets. The rest of his piece explains what he means by 'counterculture reaction'. I don't know why you think it's bollocks to portray the counterculture reaction negatively, but Christgau is surely right to portray it negatively insofar as the Eagles are involved in it, because hating the Eagles is manifestly appropriate. You're free not to like Christgau, of course; I go back and forth on him, but I sure wish he didn't say "Dean of American Rock Critics" on his own website. You should really be listening to "The Macarena" right now.
I'm not sure I'd put much significance at all in the review of a band's first album, especially where the reviewer picks out lyrics by someone else: surely Witchy Woman better captures the Eagles' junior high niche, but I guess we only really know that from hindsight. Already Gone is the culmination of the Eagles' vision, and if you can't accept that, well, then you'll have to eat your lunch all by yourself.
Hey CharleyCarp -- have you ever heard Casselberry-Dupree's cover of "Take it to the Limit"? Now that's a song.
I'll look for it.
I saw the Eagles once -- not because I wanted to, but because I had to chaperone my little sister. The opening act was Roy Orbison. Everyone over 15 could see who was the genius and who the fluffsters, but that was a decided minority in the coliseum. Maybe genius is a little strong for RO, but I'd listen to him a dozen times before I'd spend a minute more with Tom Waits (for example).
(I saw Casselberry-Dupree once -- not because I wanted to, but because I wanted to see Gil Scott-Heron, for whom they were opening. It was pretty obvious who were the soulful musical talents, and who was the zombified, junkified robot going through the motions.)
I don't know why you think it's bollocks to portray the counterculture reaction negatively
Weino, I explained that I didn't know what he meant by "counterculture reaction" so I probably wasn't saying that it's bollocks that that's bad; what I was saying was that it's bollocks that the Eagles are the culmination of country-influenced rock.
That may be what you intended to say, but nothing is available for the antecedent of "which" in "which is bollocks" but "it [the counterculture reaction] seems pretty clearly negatively portrayed here." If you identify the counterculture reaction with the country strain (and to be fair Xgau did say one epitomizes the other) I can see what you're saying. Anyway, I don't think the position that he did express, which was basically that the Eagles were the culmination of the country-inflected rock mainstream of 1972, was obviously bollocks. There is a link in 100, for your convenience.
In the quoted excerpt, which is all I had time to read in the limited time allowed us in the breaks in our classes, all he says is: epitome of rock's country strain. None of this "rock mainstream of 1972".
You are right about my referential infelicities.
Yeah, part of my thinking is that it makes more sense in context.
Note that the link in 100 is to the "Macarena" video.
That is, on rereading 123 I realized that it sounded as though I was chiding you for not having read Christgau's whole piece. Which would have been smug and obnoxious. Rather, I was pushing the argument to the same conclusion reached in 115.
The other day, I was experiencing some kind of highway hypnosis, snapped out of it, and found myself singing along with "Into The Night" by Benny Mardones. *shudder* That happens to me sometimes, not having a tape deck or CD player in my car; I suddenly realize I'm listening to some suck-ass song on the radio, think "why the hell am I listening to this?!" and get embarrassed.
Clancy, I hate when that happens. Urgh.
I saw Roy Orbison perform live on a rotating stage in the round, bitches. Rockin'. When he hit the high note in "Cryin'", the place went nuts; the band stopped, and they did it again. And again. And again! A local doo-wop group opened for him. Before their final song, one of the members--a fat older guy with gray hair--ran off stage. He returned, shirtless, with the "giant hat over the head, face painted on the torso" thing going on, Gong Show style They did "Surfin' Bird" with him on lead, his ample stomach "singing" the song. Surprisingly, I was the only one who gave them a standing ovation.
Robert Christgau stinks--even when he's right, he's a terrible writer. On the other hand, to get to the business of the thread, Roberta Flack's "Feel Like Makin' Love" is pretty fucking great--just listen to the percussion. Hated it as a kid when it came out, absolutely love it now. A quiet storm indeed.
